Captain Rivers
by LongLiveTheClones
Summary: The first chapter in the "Left Behind II" saga. Captain Rivers heads out on a mission with Cooper, Tal and the rest of Squad 18. What seems like a simple mission turns into something very different under the dark murky waters of the Im'kl River. Coverart by gloryblaz.


**The first in the "Left Behind II" series**

**Captain Rivers**

# # #

Every detail of the mission where I lost my eye comes back to me in cold harsh clarity. It was supposed to be a simple job. Get in, blow the base and get out.

Naboo is a planet with water everywhere you turn. Swamps. Seas. Insanely deep rivers. And, the Im'kl River had a Seppie base at the bottom of it.

"Cooper, get the men ready."

"Squad 18. On me. Hammer, run your checks. Tal, take the shines."

I knelt down to check my own aqua gear, and watched as Cooper supervised every member of the squad going through the mandatory checks. Cooper was a top notch lieutenant as well as the finest medic in the 91st Recon. He was also a hell of a Sabaac player. We'd gotten drunk together after many a mission. Tal was a sergeant, and would've made lieutenant if it weren't for his occasional discipline issues. Cooper tried to keep him in check, but Tal was getting fed up with the war and wasn't good about keeping quiet about it. He also could be overly passionate in his defense of his brothers. Tal was a talented trooper, but he spent a great deal of time scrubbing the floor of the mess with the tiny brush I kept in my belt pouch.

But, Tal always came through for me on missions so he and Cooper were a standard part of every recon team.

General Rancisis had insisted we bring along extra men on this mission. He said he had a bad feeling about this one. Jedi and their feelings. Commander Neyo agreed with my assessment that we were overstaffed for such a simple recon mission, but we humored the General. So, I headed down to Naboo with a ten men from the 91st, including three shinies. I figured they might just be dead weight on such a simple job but if nothing else it would be good field experience for the noobs.

Although, admittedly, one of the shinies wasn't totally useless. Tango was a top notch sniper, even if he had no field experience. The kid could shoot like an ARC. He was flying through every marksmanship test we put him through and the veteran troopers all said he was easy to incorporate in as part of a team. He had none of the haughty arrogance of some of the more talented hotshots coming out of Kamino. The last trooper like that we actually ended up naming _HotShot _due to his arrogance and he managed to get himself killed in less than a month. Tango might survive a little longer. Maybe.

But, the other two shinies? Total Kamino crap like most of the clean whites they're throwing at us these days. Foxtrot had a tendency to talk when he should be listening and then panic during high intensity drills. I'm not even sure how he graduated Kamino. Coop told me to give him a chance. He was supposed to be a brilliant geospecialist and Commander Neyo thought he'd be a good addition to my team. I'd seen his type before. I had my doubts he could make it through his first battle.

And, Whiskey? I couldn't get a read on him other than he seemed a typical shiny. Eager to please. Trying too hard. He showed some potential at improvisation strategies and quick thinking during the harder drills, but I was reserving my judgement until I actually saw him in battle. Sometimes troopers took time to grow on you. Othertimes they got themselves killed before you got to know them.

It was Tango who spotted the river monster. He's got eyes like a Vraxitan blood eagle.

"Captain, shadow at 4:00." A large dark shape was cutting across the water, barely discernible with nightvision. The sniper dropped to a knee, lowering his macrobinoculars and lining the creature up in his sights.

I dropped my own macrobinoculars in place and stared out at the water. The macros weren't helping. A black blobby shape in murky water at night. Not helpful at all. "Can you identify it, Cooper?" I switched to infrared.

The river creature reared up out of the water. The heavy gunners all lined up around Tango, weapons drawn ready to take down the monster. Belatedly, Whiskey and Foxtrot drew their weapons.

_Sloppy. If those were commando droids, those shinies would be dead already._

Cooper glanced over at Whiskey and Foxtrot. He made a subtle hand gesture to Tal, and the sergeant went over to stand between the shinies and then he turned his attention back to the river beastie. He made a thoughtful noise in the back of his throat. "Mmmmm… that one looks to be some variant on a River Hagobad. It's a harmless plant eater. One of the smaller ones, too."

"I have a shot," Tango said, tracking the creature in his sights of his sniper scope. "Sir?"

"Coop?" I looked to my second for a recommendation.

"If we shoot it, we'll have a fresh carcass to deal with during our dive," Cooper pointed out. "And, that _will_ attract every carnivore around."

"At ease, squad, let it go," I said.

The creature plunged beneath the water's surface, displacing enough water that ripples spread across the surface of the river and lapped at the shore by our feet.

Tango stood up, double-checking his sniper rifle. "Happy to take it down if it appears again." He stretched and cracked his back, adjusting the straps on his aqua pack. "Although, it _did_ look small and harmless enough."

"Small?" Foxtrot scoffed. "That thing was twice the size of a LAAT! And, that's a plant eater? What about the meat eating creatures down there?"

"Don't we count as meat, Captain?" Whiskey asked, and I had to check myself to keep from laughing. I looked over at Cooper. There was no way we were ever that shiny. Still, the noobs were amusing, if nothing else.

"Stick to the plan, boys. You'll be fine," Tal said, smacking Whiskey, Tango and Foxtrot all on the back of the head in what I'm sure he thought was a comforting gesture. He glanced down at his chrono. We were running early. We still had four minutes until we were supposed to go in. Finish the mission too early and we'd be sitting around on the riverbank with a newly exploded Seppie base and no pickup. "Let's double check your oxygen intake converters." He kept the shinies busy for the next few minutes triple checking every part of their submersion gear.

"Has anyone told those river monsters the plan?" Foxtrot asked, even as he knelt on the ground, his hands worked over his gear, casting another worried look toward the water.

"I'm sure that was the only one," Tal said reassuredly. "We'll be back on the ship swapping stories in the mess hall in a quarter rotation."

I have to hand it to Tal, he's good at painting a soothing image. Then again, he does spend a lot of time in the mess hall.

"Hammer? Your team ready?" I looked over to my lead heavy gunner. I was considering promoting him up to sergeant. Hammer was a natural born leader, and his entire team was solid. Ace and Hazard had joined the gunner squad at the same time, having trained together at Kamino. Never saw those two apart. A bit obsessed with Sabacc, as their chose of names attested, but their gaming didn't get in the way of their duties. They handled their chain guns with ease and worked well together. Switchback was a quad gunner, like Hammer, but I hadn't yet figured him out. There were stories and rumors about him, but clones gossiped so much, I ignored everything they said about Switch. I'd make my own judgements. He'd been transferred in with a bunch of others from broken squads after the 128th Armored was torn apart last month at the Battle of T'spo. He had a nose that obviously been broken one too many times, and knife cuts on his face and his arms. Something about them didn't look like the type of injuries you'd get fighting tinnies. I could've pressed Coop for his medical records, but left it alone. Switchback did his duties, and stuck to himself in his free hours. I'd been watching him, though, and noticed he was completely ambidextrous, and could switch his quad gun back and forth between his right and left hands.

So, I had my team. Ten men to blow up a Seppie base. More than we needed. But, there was no accounting for General Rancisis and his feelings.

"Headlamps," I commanded as soon as we slipped into the river. For some reason I'd expected the water to be cold. But, it was warm, almost uncomfortably so, like everything else on the planet.

"Sir, yes, sir," the voices of my team echoed comfortingly with my bucket. I led the way, setting a fast pace through the waters. Being recon, we trained to do missions in all types of environments, and while we weren't as specialized as aqua troopers, the 91st were known as fierce fighters in the water. There was a reason why I was called 'Rivers.' Although, that's a story best told over a cup of caf in the mess. Better yet, over a game of sabacc and a night of drinking smuggled whiskey. Commander Neyo sometimes complained there was too much of both going on among my men, but we always came through in a fight so he never pressed the issue.

I have yet to find out why my new shinie is nicknamed _Whiskey, _since I've never seen him drink. But, I'm sure there is a good story behind it.

"We seem to be attracting some attention," Cooper calmly said as a shadow buzzed our nine o'clock. Cooper kept in tight formation directly behind me.

"As long as it's not aqua droids, we're good," I said, trying to sound completely confident. But, I started swimming faster.

A second larger shadow passed on our three o'clock and it was so massive it caused water dispersion all around us, slowing our progress.

"That fekker's huge," Ace said.

"You gunners are obsessed with size," I responded to Ace, lightening the mood a bit. But on private channel, I commed Coop. "Can you identify?"

"That's a River Colo, Captain. It's smaller than a Sea Colo, but it's-"

"I know what a Colo is, Coop. Alright, I don't want to panic the others."

"Who's panicking?" There was a trace of humor in his voice, but we both knew how serious this was. Why hadn't our briefing materials mentioned there were _Colos_ in the _river_?

We'd requested aid from the locals who were known to be excellent swimmers, but they didn't want to guide us through the waters. Now we knew why.

Fekkin' Colos? This was not good.

Alright, granted some of the other units of the 91st Battalion _had_ worked with the Gungans and flat out stated we were probably better off on the mission without them. But, at this point, I was picturing feeding the natives to the creatures.

"Give me your assessment." We'd had many discussions like this on past missions and gotten through worse scrapes. Surely we could work our way past huge river monsters and get the team through intact.

Cooper sucked in a deep breath as he thought it through. "It seems to content to pace us. It might find more interesting prey."

"Uh huh. You think that is going to happen?"

Cooper blew out a sigh. "It's a carnivore, and as the shiny pointed out, we _are_ meat."

"Gah," I hissed out a frustrated breath, slightly fogging the inside of my mask as I did so. The air intake filters kicked in and cleared the moisture. "I'll alert the team. I opened up the link to the others. "Target on the left is a potential hostile. Be prepared for anything."

There was a short pause before the questions poured in. From the shinies, of course.

"By anything- you mean like it might wanting to eat us, sir?"

Fekkin' Foxtrot.

"I mean shut up and stay focused before I shove you down the maw of the creature myself. Any more questions?"

No. I didn't think so. That sort of answer usually discouraged unnecessary chatter.

The Seppie base was in sight. And, I could easily see the nearest river creature nearest to us. This one had to be at least fifteen meters.

"Hammer, take your team and get those charges placed. Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot, cover them. Cooper, Tal, flank me, and watch the hostiles." The squad sprang into action. Fortunately, they would not need to go inside the base to blow it. Still an easy job. Tag the place. And, then we had 14 minutes to get our shebs back to the surface before the timers went off. It was simple enough, unless we ran into complications. Like pesky river creatures.

The gunners worked quickly.

"Whiskey, watch your back," I said, as the Colo got too close for comfort.

"Affirmative, Captain," Whiskey said spinning around to cover the creature with his 15-S. "Sir, permission to eliminate target?"

"Negative, hold your fire. Local government wants us to avoid engaging these creatures unless absolutely necessary. They're protected, apparently."

"Fek," Foxtrot grumbled, "if they're protected, where does that leave us?"

Hammer and the gunners swam up and rejoined us.

"Cutting the chatter, shinie, and getting our shebs back to the RV point. That's it, charges are set. Let's go!" Cooper led the way, setting a fast pace for the team, as I covered the group's six.

"Sir," Whiskey said, "our new friend is following us."

"I could eliminate the target-" Tango offered.

"Negative. It's a juvenile," Cooper reassured the team,"a full grown River Colo would be much larger."

Coop was an amazing second-in-command. He seemed to always know the right things to say to the team.

"Understood, sir," Whiskey said, "I'd still it rather swim someplace else."

"Ignore it," I said to the team, but I had the sinking feeling the creature was not going to be deterred. "But, be prepared for anything."

"If by anything, you mean blast it to Cato Neimodia, I'm all for it," Hammer said.

"It's gone," Whiskey said, the shinie's voice reflecting his confusion.

I pivoted back and forth, looking for the sea beast. The sudden disappearance of the creature worried me more than anything. Better the enemy you know, than the one you don't. The trainers on Kamino were always driving that point home both in real-time drills training and all the kriffin' flash instruction. "Stay in formation. Focus on getting to the surface."

119 seconds until the det exploded. 950 meters to the surface.

A flash of movement shot up out of the depths. "Whiskey, Tango, on your 3:00!"

Fek the protected status. This Colo was going down.

I drew my aqua blaster and pivoted in the water, drawing sights on the horrific beast and-

I was too late. Tango shrieked. It was that sound clones made when bones were being ripped apart and there was no way you could hold the yell inside.

"Tango!" I swam directly at the last known location of my sniper. My promising new shinie. The one I'd shared caf with this morning and teased about the upcoming mission. And, I swam directly through a cloud of blood.

I found my sniper, minus his shooting arm. Cooper swam furiously up beside me with the intense speed only medics can manage when their team is in trouble.

"I'm reading his vitals," Cooper said. He was linked to every member of the team through his HUD. "He's still alive, but his suit's been compromised."

"Go!"

"Tal!" Cooper shouted, pulling in the resources he needed. As much of a wildcard as Tal could be, he was incredible in a crisis. They each grabbed hold of the injured sniper by the utility belt. There was no way they could hold onto his arms when he was missing one, and they took off for the surface, trailing blood behind them.

"FOXTROT!"

I spun around in time to see my new geo specialist go down the maw of the creature's throat. This was no partial tasting of a limb. After getting an initial taste of clone, the Colo had obviously decided troopers were worth eating whole.

"Fire!" I ordered, giving the team permission to open up the creature. With their combined firepower, the young colo came apart in seconds. Fek. Why hadn't I done so before it had struck? Bits of the destroyed creature drifted down toward the bottom of the river.

"That's enough," I said. "Get to the surface."

The team swam ahead of me, and I once again covered their six.

We had to 26 seconds to travel 100 meters. Almost there.

An enormous shadow passed underneath me.

Oh, fek.

I suddenly caught a flash out of the corner of my eye.

"Hammer!" I said, spinning around. "Get the others to the surface. Go!"

"Captain-"

"Go! That's an order!"

I wasn't suicidal. But, I wanted as many of my squad to survive as possible and the odds weren't good if we all stayed down here. I suddenly got a glimpse of this latest creature.

A full grown Colo.

By the farklin' sons of Tattoine. I'd never seen anything so large. My instinct was to run. But, I only had to distract the creature long enough to allow Hammer and the others time to get away. The blast from the base would be enough to scare the creature away in another… 15 seconds.

I checked my depth. I was still too deep. My suit wasn't designed to survive the blast radius this close. I needed to get higher. And, distract the Colo. Timing was critical.

I aimed shots directly at the Colo's head, making every shot count. The Colo reared back and retreated, descending down below again. I made for the surface.

I had to get higher.

11 seconds.

I caught a glimpse of white teeth out of the corner of my eye and pivoted in time to see the colo rushing up out of the deep. I spun around, firing and aiming for the Colo's eye, trying to permanently disable the creature.

Oh, shabla hell. I missed and hit the creature in the snout. Alright, I could've used my sniper. Except my sniper was in pieces thanks to one of these creatures. I fired again with a full-spectrum of shots, hitting the creature good, but none of them were a kill shot. It was just too big.

And, I'd just made it angry.

Very angry.

Actually, Cooper would later say to me he was sure the Colo was already fekked off when it came after us because the first Colo we killed was likely a juvenile. The offspring of this one. Right, nothing worse than seriously ticking off a creature a hundred times larger than you.

I spun around, hoping my speed would give me an edge. 8 seconds. 50 meters. I just had to make it to the surface and then the dets would take care of the creature and blow it from below.

Yes, I know, I was trying to outswim a river creature.

The last thing I ever saw out of my left eye was the massive Colo claw coming at me. I ducked under it, but I was still caught in a glancing sideswipe. The razor sharp claw scraped across my face like a massive shrapnel strike before releasing again. My helmet punctured with a whoosh, immediately filling with water. I gasped instinctively from the shock and drew in a lungful of river fluid. I started coughing and choking as my body tried to expel the water.

I don't recommend drowning. It's exceedingly painful.

I was in trouble.

All I could think about was getting to the surface, but I still had to take care of the fekkin' Colo.

I couldn't see. Blood was flowing around me. I was hazy and ill and I was coughing so hard I was vomiting underwater. Can't say I've felt worse before or since. I kept firing in the direction I'd last seen the creature, even as I pushed upward with my legs. I didn't stop firing. I had no idea how much time until the det blew. My HUD was gone, and I couldn't see. But, I kept swimming upwards and blasting in the direction of the Colo. Figuring I was dead anyway, I pulled my t-det off of belt. At the last second, out of my one functional eye, I caught another flash of teeth coming toward me. I shoved the t-det into the maw.

The dets from the base blew at that second. And, then my t-det blew. I was propelled out of the water. Not sure how high, but Hammer saw me. He said it was about the highest he ever saw a clone go without a jetpack. He estimates I went up a good 50 meters. I knew I was dead if I landed wrong, even with the armor, especially since I couldn't get any air in. I needed help, and, fast. I put my feet down in dive position.

I plunged back into the water and that part didn't kill me. But, my momentum took me down deep. And, into a huge mass of fekkin' Colo guts. And, I still couldn't breathe. The visibility was worse than ever between the dark. The guts. And, the blood streaming from my eye.

Blackness started creeping in. No. No. No.

I was too deep underwater. I couldn't pass out. No.

Strong arms grabbed me and yanked me upwards.

I wasn't aware of getting to shore, but apparently the gunners pulled me in. Hammer and Switch dove in after me the moment I went under and dragged me to the riverbank.

Cooper and Tal were still working on stabilizing Tango. As soon as they saw how bad as I was, though, Hammer and Tal took over on Tango. Hammer is actually a decent medic in his own right, being the impromptu medic on the gunners.

I came back around as I was vomiting up half of Naboo all over Cooper. He didn't seem to care. Cooper is good that way. He always seems glad to see a brother pull through, no matter what they puke on him.

"Don't— do that again," Cooper hissed, giving me a stern look.

I couldn't speak. I tried to nod, but my head hurt so bad I ended up moaning instead and grabbing at my eye. Ow. Fek.

"Move your hands away," Cooper commanded.

I groaned out something indistinct about Cooper's progenitor, and refused to uncover my eye. It hurt too much.

"Ace, Hazard, pin him."

"No," I protested, but it came out more as a cough. The dastardly duo of sabacc held me down while Cooper pulled out one of those shabla' exam lights from his medkit. I finally found my voice. "Cooper, fek, shut it off." Except my voice sounded like I swallowed half the Im'kl River. The medic ignored me, focused intently on his work. "Cooper!" The pain from the light was excruciating. Blood from my split cheek was streaming down my face, causing me to choke as it pooled in my mouth. Coop eased me into a seated position, leaning me up against somebody. Switchback. Had to be.

"I've got you, Captain," Switch said soothingly. "You're going to be OK now." I peered up at him through the blurred mess of my vision, taking in the scars on his face and his badly broken nose. There was a certain sadness in his eyes that never left, and now it was also pierced with worry. He was a good vode, and I vowed if I lived through this thing, I was going to find out what was bothering Switch.

"Ace, call us in a Code Red evac. Tell Jinx to get down here now." Cooper turned his attention to me. "Of all the stupid moves," He lectured, working swiftly to close the huge cut on my cheek with synth-skin. He injected me with something extra strong to dull the pain and I sagged back as a boneless heap against Switchback. He tightened his arms around me to keep me from sliding down to the ground. It was strangely comforting. Of course, once Coop was in the mood for a fine lecture, he wouldn't stop. "What were you thinking taking on a Colo by yourself?" I didn't answer, knowing he wasn't expecting one. For the moment, I was so dazed and drugged up, I was content to sag back against Switch staring up at the red haze of the sky. No, it was my vision that was turning red. "Tango?" I muttered out wearily, looking toward the injured sniper.

"He's stable for now. Tal and I were able to stop the bleeding."

I heaved out a sigh of relief, although it made me cough again. Cooper sat me up a little straighter until my coughing fit eased, rubbing my back. Gah. It hurt to sit up. A lot. I moaned and grabbed at my eye. Cooper pulled my hands away and eased me back again against Switchback. The pain eased up a little.

"Yes, everyone else is fine, minus Foxtrot," Cooper pulled out his scanner, the line on his brow deepening as he took readings. It was his 'you are totally fekked' look, although he quickly looked away. I'd seen it, though, because he'd given that look to other clones he'd treated in the 91st. And, I knew what happened to them. We all knew what happened to them.

"Cooper," my voice was as gravely as my name.

"Riv," Cooper said in his quiet, no-nonsense medic way, I'm administering diamorpazepamazine. You need to stop moving around. There's significant neuro-optic damage." He wouldn't make eye contact with me. I saw Jinx swooping in with the LAAT. As usual, the insane pilot came in so hard and fast he was almost more of a hazard to us than the Seppies. But, this time he seemed in even more of a hurry than usual. As soon as Coop gave me the next hypo, I couldn't move at all. A feeling of warmth spread through my limbs and then the overwhelming desire to go to sleep. I had no other memories until Ord Cestus.

# # #

Cooper crouched down protectively over Rivers, automatically ducking as Jinx swooped in to land. He cast a worried look at the Captain. His face was split apart and there was no saving the severely damaged eye. This was bad. Very bad. His entire system went cold at the thought of having to red card his own Captain.

# # #

Six weeks. Six weeks at Ord Cestus.

Bad enough being away from the 91st Recon, but this cybernetic? I have no words for it. I know I should be grateful. But, I can't stop thinking of how different I am now.

Wolffe has been a true vod throughout all this. He's the only other clone so far to be fitted with one of these implants. He commed me four times during my recovery. Even though the commander's comms were always brief, they did help. He told me it was tough for him in the beginning, which is a _huge _admission for any clone. But, he said the cybernetic feels more natural with time and even has a few advantages. I can't see any now, other than it was this or Kamino, but I'll try to keep an open mind.

Cooper commed a few times, too, although it was obvious he was as fekkin' busy as Wolffe, maybe even more so. Not only did he still have all his medic duties, but now he was also covering my command role. I asked Cooper point blank how I ended up getting a cybernetic. Wolffe is much higher ranking than me, and I didn't see anyone else at 'Cestus with one, so I would think they were saving the tech for Jedi and citizens and important people. Coop confessed he petitioned hard along with the Commander and even wrangled General Rancisis into the effort. The three of them are the only reason I wasn't relegated to the bottom of a Tipoca City incinerator weeks ago along with the other hardcore battle damaged 'Cestus clones.

I'm such a Hutt for not being more grateful for all of this. But, everytime I see my silver eye, my first reaction is: 'Commando Droid!' The instinct to shoot at my eerily robotic eye has not eased. Wolffe actually cracked a small smile when I told him that story. He said the feeling would pass.

I've learned to shave without looking in the mirror and avoid all reflective surfaces. The other injured here at 'Cestus don't seem to care about the eye. But, they're all injured, too, so they're bound to be more forgiving. I have no idea how the vode at the 91st Recon are going to react.

I'm about to find out, though.

Fek. This medtransport is late. These things always run like chronowork. Why is this one so late? I've no desire to stay on this medstation another fekkin' minute.

Ah, finally a ship.

That's no medical transport…

Oh fek. They sent _Jinx_?

The battered 91st Recon LAAT dove into the landing bay with such velocity it activated every automatic intruder alarm. Ground crew dove out of the way as the ship hurtled toward me and cargo scattered in its' wake.

Out of habit, I hit the deck and made myself as flat as possible.

"Captain, is that you down there?"

I peered up and waved, recognizing Jinx's voice emenating for the external speakers. I pushed myself off the deck plating and noticed an entire contingent of angry flight bay personnel charging toward us. The doors of the LAAT slid open. I scraped myself off the ground and was yanked onboard into a sea of white and red; the comfortingly familiar colors of the 91st.

I glanced back at the deck crew. They did not look pleased.

"Jinx, let's go!" I shouted. No idea if we had clearance, but Jinx generally didn't wait for such things anyway. He always found a way through. The LAAT took off again, throwing me backwards. But, someone caught me. There was always someone who had my six in the 91st.

"Captain!" Switchback. Of course.

"Hey, Switch."

The gunner glanced down at me, not letting go. He whistled appreciatively. "Nice scar."

I blushed self-consciously. "Eh, thanks. Let me go." He pushed me to my feet and I was enthusiastically greeted, with pounding backslaps by everyone in the crowded ship.

And, the LAAT was completely packed with troopers. Filthy, mud-splattered recon troopers.

"Tal!" I greeted my Sergeant, "you been staying out of trouble?"

He grinned. "Someone else has been scrubbing that floor other than me. I've been a model trooper."

"Ah, it's just me, then, is it, Tal?" I teased, but I was pleased he was doing so well. Disciplining the men was no easy task.

Cooper shoved his way through the crowd, and gripped me by the arm. "Hammer, move that big gun of yours and make some space for the Captain." The gunner gave up his seat on the edge of the bench, leaving a splatter of mud behind, Cooper sat down in the mud, and tugged me down into the seat next to him. "Let me see that eye. I've always wanted to see one of those up close."

"Coop," I looked around self-consciously at the packed LAAT. I was trying not to draw attention to the fekkin' thing.

"What? Tal, see if you can my mini-lumi out of pack." He shifted sideways and waited for his vod to dig into his medic pack for the requested item. "Thanks."

"Cooper."

I'm going to melt that lumen down to scrap.

"What? Are you photosensitive?" he asked curiously, getting right in my face as he studied the 'netic. He whistled. "Amazing. How is your sight?"

"Cooper, you smell like a 'cessin' mudpit. Get out of my face," I pushed him away irritably.

The medic simply chuckled. "If you think I smell bad, you should get a whiff of Hammer."

"Hey!" the gunner objected, but then took a deep whiff of himself for good measure. He looked over at Ace and Hazard. "Do I smell?"

I turned away from the sight of my heavy gunners busily sniffing each other. Cooper was not want to be deterred when he was on a mission about something. He leaned in again with his lumen. I gave up and let him have his way.

"It's like having built-in macro-binoculars, right?" Whiskey said, leaning in and taking a closer look at my eye. He no longer looked like a shinie. Maybe he was going to turn out alright.

"That beats my cybernetic," Tango said, holding up his arm. I wanted to check out the sniper's arm but couldn't see past the light being shined in my eye.

And, then it occurred to me. They were all simply curious.

I sighed and sat back. "Yes, Whiskey. I have significantly enhanced vision in the one eye."

Everyone was silent, listening intently wanting to know more about it.

"It…" I tried to think of more words to describe it. "… it took some getting used to because the sight is so different from the sight in the other eye. I ran into a lot of things at first. Like walls."

Everyone in the LAAT burst out laughing. "Wish I'd seen that!" Jinx chimed in from the front.

"No, better you didn't," I grumbled, but I could feel myself wanting to smile along with them. I couldn't think of much else to say about it. "I… haven't gotten used to it yet. Not really," I admitted. My chest felt lighter, like I'd released a burden.

Tango shrugged. "I still feel like I'm going to rip off my Jango sometimes when I piss," the sniper contributed.

Everyone roared with laughter. When the group calmed down, I managed to get another sentence in. "Thank you for that, Tango. That… eh… helps a lot."

And, somehow it did.

"It's a great scar, too, Captain," Tal said, "suits you."

I ran my hand across the scar.

"You earned that scar," Cooper said.

I considered the remark. I suppose I did. A flash of red under Tal's muddy armor caught my eye. I gripped the sergeant's arm, and pushed away the muck. "What's this?"

"New artwork," Tal grinned, pointing to the symbol. "You like it?"

I studied it, trying to figure out why it looked so eerily familiar. "That's a Colo claw. A fekkin' Colo claw."

"It is."

The entire LAAT went silent, like a collective breath had been sucked in. Even farkin' Jinx had nothing to say for once. Cooper stepped closer and showed me his rerebrace. The same symbol was there. A stylized Colo. I looked around the LAAT, aware that everyone was waiting for my reaction. I stared at the artwork, gazing at the red symbol. Every trooper onboard now had a Colo on their arm.

"Why?"

I'd spent the past six weeks trying to forget the nightmarish creature which had taken my eye.

"Commander Neyo renamed our squad," Cooper said evenly. "We're Colo now. No longer simply Squad 18."

"Colo," I said, trying out the name, still trying to figure out what the fek Neyo could've been thinking.

Tango stepped forward. Surely he would understand. That creature had taken his arm. "The commander said it defined us a squad. We took on a Colo and won, and still got the job done. There's a special commendation waiting for you from the General when you get back."

" And, a freshly painted set of armor," Jinx chimed in. The 91st Recon's most insane pilot channeled his fervent energy into painting when he wasn't flying. His favorite surfaces seemed to be the sides of ships and working on vode's armor, although his artwork had cropped up inappropriate areas around the ship at times. General Racissis referred to Jinx as a "free spirit" and did his best to channel the pilot's energy. Neyo barely tolerated him and was constantly telling Rivers to keep Jinx "under control." But, Jinx was one of those Jangos who was different. You didn't control them. The General had the right about it. Jedi weren't wrong all the time.

I studied the symbol on Cooper's arm, aware that everyone was still waiting for me to say something else. "You came up with the concept, Jinx?"

"We all did," Cooper said, "as a squad, but Jinx did the art, for all of us."

"Colo," trying out the name that would define us as a squad for the rest of the war, "alright, then."

"Coop," I shoved at the medic, "make room. Hey Whiskey, come sit next to me." The shinie looked at me in surprise. "We've never really had a chance to talk."

The trooper settled down into the smeared bench vacated by Cooper. "Sir?"

"So," I asked, as he settled into the seat and I noticed he smelled no better than Hammer, "tell me how you got the name 'Whiskey.'"

Tango burst out laughing and sidled in closer to us. The rest of the troopers, sensing a good story, crowded in as well, if it was possible to get any more crowded in that space. And, so, we headed home to the 91st Recon.

# # #


End file.
